Journal Entry 1/4

(a) You do not need to know how big the plane is to calculate the time it takes to get from New York to Los Angeles. you are given the average speed which makes the length of the trip directly discernible. Because the speed is given the size is unnecessary.

(b) When parking the plane, its size is necessary however. the distance between the two gates is directly dependent on the size of the plane. if the size was not specifically given and an estimate was used to construct the gates, there would be a serious problem upon landing.

(c) The size of the plane is not necessary if we are told that the plane taxied along the runway for 100 m. Regardless of the size of the plane, it moved for 100 m. You would consider the change in its distance from the nose of the plane. It does not matter what length is behind the nose because once the distance the nose has gone has reached 100 m, the movement stops.

(d) When a plane moves left its size is necessary because the shift can be depicted with a right triangle. if the plane taxied for 100 m, then turned left, it is 32 m left of that 100 m mark. To find how much the passenger moved you would construct a right triangle with legs 100 and 32 and you would calculate the hypotenuse. The hypotenuse would equal the distance the passenger moved with respect to the ground.